


Concerning Novaks

by fypical



Series: The Sabriel Week Snippets [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 23:53:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fypical/pseuds/fypical
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam thinks he has the biggest crush on his friend Castiel until Castiel's older brother comes home from college one day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Concerning Novaks

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a shameless play on "Concerning Hobbits" from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Requested by lexiathan on tumblr.

Cas Novak ( _not_ Castiel, thank you very much) is a lot like Sam, which is why Sam thinks he likes him so much; they spend a “really freakin’ creepy, seriously Sammy” (quote: Dean Winchester, older brother) amount of time together, comparing their favourite books and music.

Okay, they’re not really all that similar in that respect; Cas likes classical music to an almost obsessive degree, and has a gigantic intellectual crush on Stephen King, whereas Sam’s more predisposed to like “weird indie shit” (quote: also Dean Winchester) and would probably follow Charles Dickens around if he could.

But, they argue like hell about it, and end up laughing over it later; there aren’t any butterflies or cliché’s like that, but Sam’s pretty comfortable with Cas.

That is, until his older brother shows up unannounced one day, on a break – unscheduled – from college. Cas and Sam are mid-argument when the door slams open and then slams shut again, and Cas groans expansively.

“Caaaastiel,” a voice calls from the porch, and Cas is scrambling off of the couch, muttering for Sam to stay there, but a head pokes around the corner before he gets out of the room, and its owner grins widely.

“New friend?” he asks, and Cas makes a horrified noise as the stranger – but obviously only to Sam – strides into the room fully.

Sam kind of stares, because for one, he’s never met anyone nearly as bordering-on-obnoxious as Dean, and for two, the stranger’s…kind of really attractive, with almost overlong hair pushed back out of his eyes and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder. The sweater he’s wearing is _this_ close to dwarfing him, and he grins at Cas and then over at Sam, and then moves quickly to tug Cas into a hug.

Oh. Cas had mentioned he had an older brother away at college. That makes sense.

Cas goes kind of tense, and his brother squeezes him tighter, winking knowingly at Sam over Cas’s shoulder.

Sam’s pretty sure any fleeting interest he had in Cas based on their literature arguments runs right out the door.

“Gabriel, this is my friend Sam,” Cas says stiffly, when his brother finally lets him go, “be _nice_.”

Gabriel raises his eyebrows. “I’m always nice!” he protests, and Cas gives him a totally flat look.

“Sam, I apologize. This is my brother, Gabriel, who _ought to be still at school_.”

Gabriel shrugs. “Claimed stress, got a week off, figured I’d come visit the fam. I’m guessing Dad’s not around?”

Cas shakes his head and Gabriel snorts like he’s unsurprised. Sam watches the whole exchange, kind of flabbergasted, because Gabriel and Cas look nothing alike but also because everything Cas had said about his brother had indicated that Gabriel had basically raised him, and, what? How is that even possible?

“I should probably go…” Sam suggests and Gabriel’s eyes – wow, are they seriously amber? Holy shit – snap to him, but it’s Castiel that responds.

“You are welcome to stay for dinner, Sam. Since Gabriel is so eager to visit with family, I’m sure he would not mind cooking. You can invite Dean, if you’d like.”

“Uh,” Sam says, and Gabriel rolls his eyes, but Sam’s not sure at whom.

“Relax,” he says, “I’m a good cook.”

It turns out to be an understatement, because when Dean shows up, Gabriel’s flitting around the kitchen like it’s second nature.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel says, and worries at the edge of his cuff, and yeah, now that Sam isn’t wondering if he’s into Cas or not, he can kind of see that Cas is _really_ not into him.

“Gabriel has always wanted to cook professionally,” Cas confides to them as Gabriel sets something on fire – on purpose, if his calm humming is any sign – “but Father suggested strongly that he go into business.”

Apparently Gabriel heard that, because he grumbles a little about how boring business school is and what the fuck is going to need advanced statistics for, anyway?

The burgers he makes are _ridiculous_ , Sam didn’t even know bleu cheese could taste that good, and even if Dean eyes it like it’s going to come alive and battle it out with him, he makes a totally obscene noise when he bites into the burger. Cas turns several festive colours, and Gabriel laughs.

“I’ll take that one as a compliment,” he says. He talks like he’s known them his whole life, which, Sam doesn’t actually know what Cas tells his brother about his friends, so maybe Gabriel knows everything about Sam’s penchant for Bon Iver.

“You can do dishes, Cassie,” Gabriel says, dodging a glare from Cas, who’s very picky about nicknames, “I wanna meet your friends.”

Dean stands abruptly. “Cas, I’ll help you out with dishes, man, you don’t have to do ‘em on your own.”

Sam stares at him because Dean’s never actually offered to do a dish in his life; he does them, but he doesn’t ever make it sound like a fun hobby.

Which is how Sam ends up in the basement, curled up on the couch with Gabriel, half-watching _Two Towers_ (which Cas hadn’t even opened, and Gabriel had made a little wounded noise upon discovering that) and talking about the relevancy of Victorian literature in the 21 st century. Gabriel also confides that he’s planning on dropping out of business school, because he’s been accepted into a culinary arts program at a college that’s even closer to home.

Sam briefly considers rethinking his position on love at first sight.

Partway through the Battle for Helm’s Deep, Sam drifts off with Gabriel’s hand stroking slowly through his hair. When he wakes up, it’s because Dean had nudged him, and Gabriel’s nowhere to be found, but there’s a number scrawled on Sam’s wrist in black ink.

It occurs to him, when he adds Gabriel to his phone contacts, that he has one Novak brother on speed dial, and it’s not even the one he thought he liked.


End file.
